St. Paraskeva Church in Radruż (Church Complex - Borderland Museum in Lubaczów)

St. Paraskeva Church in Radruż

The wooden Greek Catholic church (formerly an Orthodox church) dedicated to St. Paraskeva in Radruż is among the most valuable and oldest monuments of wooden sacred architecture in Poland. In 2013 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the transnational entry "Wooden Tserkvas of the Carpathian Region in Poland and Ukraine", and in 2017 it was recognised as a Monument of History.

Location and surroundings

The church stands on an oval hill above the Radrużka stream. Together with the bell tower it is surrounded by a stone wall (from 1825), which gives the complex a defensive character. The complex also includes the so-called Cantor's House (a former mortuary) and the churchyard cemeteries.

History

The church was built around 1583; its founder is identified as Jan Płaza, a member of parliament and starost of Lubaczów (d. 1599). It is regarded as the oldest and best-preserved wooden Orthodox church in Poland. Since 2010 the church complex has been a branch of the Borderland Museum in Lubaczów and remains under its permanent care.

What to see

The body of the church of the Halych-San type (according to UNESCO classification - Lemko), the defensive stone wall, the free-standing bell tower and exhibitions in the museum building on the complex grounds.

For whom

For lovers of wooden architecture, the history of the Polish-Ukrainian borderland and UNESCO monuments.